


Elephant trails

by ChucTingle



Series: TMA/HS [2]
Category: Homestuck, The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Ancestors (Homestuck), Archivist, Gen, Other, Snippets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 02:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21228218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChucTingle/pseuds/ChucTingle
Summary: The Distortion seeks to talk to Red about the birth of his being for one reason or the other.





	Elephant trails

**[CLICK]**  
Redglare:  
“Case 222222 Terry Petrov regarding some unusual sightings at court. Committed to tape the-” [Distortion noises] [Pause] “...the...”

PSII:  
“That’s a wonderful number that one…”

Red:  
“Did it compel you?”

Psii:  
“As much as you can compel the waves by asking nicely to stop…”

Red:  
“Why are you here?”

Psii:  
“To talk…. to share to… you know… say things! Wander about, can’t say hello to a friend?” [Psii snatches paper out of the table and rips it.]

Red:  
“Why did you- [SIGH] You know, if you wanted the number you could just have asked.”

Psii:  
“Yes, the number… of course…” [Giggles] “Such trivial things… little numbers, big numbers, all meaning so much and yet so little. Two, too, to…”

Red:  
[Groan] “What do you want Icarus?”

Psii:  
“Icarus doesn’t want anything, he is kind of … you know… dead! But I bet he would want his story to go somewhere. After all he was rather… taktative. I bet we would have gotten along… yes I think so. If you want to hear, I can tell you all about him… well all that his small feeble memories can give.”

Red:  
“You’re- you are giving me your statement… why? Why now?”

Psii:  
“No, no, no! Consider it generosity… curiosity satiated… bored perhaps… interest on seeing what happens when you hear the truth… many things lots of reasons… who knows… I mean it’s not me who I’m talking about, I don’t think you have the time to hear about me, to start with creation… I could lose myself on that.”

Red:  
“Right…” [Pause] “So?”

Psii:  
“So?”

Red:  
_“Right.”_ [Clears throat.] “Case 222222, Statement of Icarus Captor regarding how he came to be. Recording from subject. Committed to tape-”

Psii:  
“NOW!”

[Psii Statement]  
“Where should I go with this… he was so insignificant you know, so boring so… desperate… he was just another human that was born and loving and caring… part of nothing, small little thing that believed himself to be able to navigate anything. Maybe that’s why... He held no fear you know? The corruption tried their best but to what end… you don’t talk about the failures, those who are stronger than… well the survivors come here to talk about what they cry about but he never even considered trying to tell anybody…

And that is a story for another day, but the filth failed … so in his attempt to regain his strength and his life again he decided to do what he loved the most… To navigate one of the few trails he knew by design, by memory. Hitchhike where others have been thousands of time. Safe… routinary… weakened.

I don’t think he lost in purpose. But it’s easy to get lost, easier than you would think, a wrong turn here, a wrong turn there and the maze of trails and trees would eventually get him off track. Maybe his head was somewhere else, maybe his heart was yearning… maybe something big was happening close enough that affected him, who knows what it could have been but sooner than later he was lost.

He noticed quickly, and he was prepared, chalk the trees, go in an straight line. Compass was broken map was all wrong and yet not once he pictured himself anywhere but safe. Specially because of the trails, seeing where the grass was missing and he just had to use those, it had to lead somewhere if so many have used it, can’t be that bad.

Where I think of it now… if there is a wasp infestation you rarely care about the ants on the floor, the ones that you can step over easily. Or the grass even, nobody thinks about that, the wasps are attacking you have deal with it… but it is the smallest unrelated thing that can make everything break.

He was lost days, not even once he wondered how he could be lost in this twist of trees and trails that didn’t seem to end. He was still on the area… He was sure it would end somewhere, and somewhere it did. Icarus was so happy, the last second of relief he ever felt but all that turned into agony in a matter of seconds. He found something that he should have never seen.

The great twisting, Archivist. He saw the great Twisting. Everything, me, my followers, the entirety of the revolving that captured minds and souls, the entirety of our greatness that could have, and he couldn’t understand, and I’m pretty sure he would have been lost to me if it wasn’t for her. Something to fixate on, something he knew, familiar options that allowed him to continue. No mind could have but he retained themselves but upon seeing this familiar thing he fixated. Someone entering a door, and he followed.

There is nothing else there of course, casualty irony, maybe some of that and then but… it was strange, he would have been consumed in any other way. The first person entered with a map, but Icarus yelled right behind. It was a surprise for both of them, seeing each other right then and there. Icarus’ body aching for help he took a break and the figure with the map stared, and then she turned around to inquire him on his presence.

[Giggles] I think about this a lot, had he not been so loud I don’t think I would have noticed her otherwise. I was lost to begin with… being so close to eternity to a change for my being, a world twisting in a endless ways with no exit inside, all corners mixing with one another in a fractal perfection beyond what eternity has seen. 

With Icarus on the mix I heard them then, loud, desperate. Confused. The map that he observed from the woman made no sense to him and she decided to continue and he could tag along. I went to see, I had to check now that there were people at my door right before my coronation, and my oh my, I found them quickly. She with the map, him pointless. Sometimes a light is so bright you see nothing but the corners of it, and that I knew was dangerous. I invested on getting her first.

You know what Icarus did? This fool thinking he could do anything against me, he decided to defend her, distract the monster until it was all done, heroic and stupid, terrified and digestible. It was easy to rid to get him out of the game but even a few seconds are enough for the map holder to gain distance. A job I didn’t finish so I could enter the mouse and cat game. All I had to do was entretien her long enough for nothing to stop me.

And he got up, weak, bloody mess. Worried about this stranger, someone he just met because it reminded him of someone he loved. Icarus was scared of course, wondering if he had died, wondering if he went mad but upon seeing a trail of fight and struggle he decided to follow it. He did what he had memorized his entire life and followed that given path that would take him to safety. He wandered across the doors and mirrors. In pain and forcing himself, in that little trail of me that was able to happen.

… I killed her you know, this woman that knew too much. I never figured out how she got the map, I never knew how, with the ascension so close it didn’t matter, what would it be, minutes? Seconds? I couldn’t had accounted for him figuring it out, for him knowing the path, following the trail until he was... me.

I got open appart, reinvented, twisted, destroyed and pasted into one another, our bodies colliding like opposites, right as I was becoming I was undone once and again and again until or bones and skin became the same. Until we were the same thought and being, while everything was collapsing and unbecoming outside, Icarus shattered and his last thought was miserable.

[Giggles] I just think is… hilarious, you don’t expect that, unprepared. Unrelated and never knowing of me, of everyone and then suddenly everything made sense. Fell in like pieces and then it didn’t. My existence is a tragedy, my failure and me, us together married in this endless being that shows edges for once.

A constant reminder of my limits, having to chase for people, follow the trails of those who are confused. It is funny, no?

Red:  
Ye-yes. I would think so. Question.

Psii:  
Answer.  
Red:  
[Firmly] Why now?

Psii:  
Coincidence perhaps… timing reasons… keeping you here with a long boring drought statement while the Web makes its move.

Red:  
What?

Psii:  
[LAUGHTER] That’s life isn’t it? One moment you are taking an statement from deceit and then things fall apart!

Red:  
What is the web doing, Icarus?

Psii:  
What if the Web isn’t doing, Archivist?

Red:  
No, no no no! WAIT, I COMMAND YOU TO-

[Door slams shut]

Red:  
Wait…

Red:  
Fucking damn it.

**[CLICK]**


End file.
